Another Top-10 City List — The Most Snobby Small Cities in the Country (and a bonus)

First must be the disclaimer: I neither agree nor disagree with the findings of these rankings (but I do find the methodology intriguing). If you ask me my opinion, I will echo Tim Allen on the TV show Home Improvement when Tim was asked by his wife Jill to comment on her parents and family: “I have no opinion.” Had I done this research, however, I may have renamed it the Most Opulent Small Cities in America.

Movoto.com, a real estate research and brokerage company, gleaned the 2010 Census data of all small cities with a population ranging from 45,000 to 65,000. A total of 309 cities were included in the analysis in which they were able to obtain data on which the results were premised. Movoto specifically notes that snob does not mean bad, but rather these are wealthy communities with an array of economic opportunities and culture.

The factors that Movoto included in their analytical criteria were:

Greatest median household income (the more the better)

Median home price (the more expensive the better)

Percentage of the population with college degrees (the greater the percentage the better)

Private schools per capita (the more the better)

Performing arts per capita (the more the better)

Art galleries per capita (the more the better)

Fast food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)

Each city was ranked from best to worse amongst the entire 309 cities in the study.

The top 50 cities in the overall ranking which were number one in each of the individual criterion were:

Household Income #1 McLean, Virginia

Greatest Percentage of College Grads #1 Bethesda, Maryland

Performing Art #1 Santa Cruz, California

Median Home Price #1 Palo Alto, California

The number one ranking for the other three criterion did not make the top 50 cities.

So what were the snobbiest small cities in America according to Movoto? Or in Ted’s words, the most opulent? Not surprising, four of the ten were in California.

Is there a snobby city not on the list you believe should be there? Do recall that Movoto analyzed just those cities with a population ranging from 45,000 to 65,000.

But wait, we’ll add one more free item. Following are the results of a similar analysis on the snobbiest mid-sized cities in America – which included an added criterion of the number of country clubs. Not surprisingly once again, California leads the list garnering six of the top-10 positions.

Movoto did not state the range of population included in the mid-sized city study, but the top 50 cities had a low population of 127,939 and a high of 210,309.